Seaport CSR: innovation for economic, social and environmental objectives

Purpose Seaports have gained importance in recent years, but they have also featured fundamental changes. For example, societal and environmental pressures have increased. As a consequence of these pressures, corporate social responsibility has gradually been introduced also in the ports sector. One of the impacts is at the level and type of innovation. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the way that corporate social responsibility emerges among company goals in seaports and the extent to which innovation initiatives respond to the goals raised. Design/methodology/approach To reach its objective, the paper applies a two-step approach. Starting from scientific literature, it drafts an initial set of port-related company goals. This list is validated through a Delphi approach. In a second step, the paper applies a scoring of how port innovation initiatives respond to the raised goals. Furthermore, it determines the degree of homogeneity of both the objective scoring and the innovation scoring, and those two are then compared. Findings The paper derives how relevant a specific innovation action is to a specific company goal, and to which extent it actually contributes to achieving the goal. The most relevant objectives turn out to be turnover and CO2 emissions. It furthermore seems that the social objectives are best achieved. Best achievable seem the “dangerous goods” and “training”. Practical implications The results give insight into which socially important objectives need public support, and which initiatives are to be stimulated. Originality/value The results allow making an initial typology of actions and conditions that contribute to innovation “success”.